Raven Ziegler from Minneapolis protests the name nickname of the Washington team. (Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images)
Seems like the Donald Sterling controversy is making waves in the sports world. After the racist comments made by Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling led to his lifetime NBA band and a $2.5 million dollar fine, more people are using the aftermath to address the issue of the Washington football team’s racist name.
The New York Times reports that 50 U.S. Senators have signed a letter to the NFL, urging them to put pressure on Washington team owner Dan Snyder to change the team’s name. “The N.F.L. can no longer ignore this and perpetuate the use of this name as anything but what it is: a racial slur,” the letter reads. “We urge the N.F.L. to formally support a name change for the Washington football team.”
The letter was circulated among Senate Democrats (but not any Republicans), was signed by every Senate Democrat except for five—Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.), Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.), and Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), along with Virginia Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine. Although Kaine says he supports changing the team’s name, he said he didn’t like the letter’s “tone,” which is why he didn’t sign it, Business Insider reports. The team’s training camp is in Richmond, Va., while they play in Maryland.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who also signed the letter, has been pretty vocal in the past about why the team should change their name. “I have 22 tribal organizations in Nevada,” Reid told the NYT. “They are not mascots. They are human beings. And this term [is] offensive to them.”
The Oneida Indian Nation, a Native American Tribe who launched a massive PR campaign to urge Snyder to change team’s name last summer, praised the 50 Senators who signed the letter. “Washington team owner Dan Snyder and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell have claimed that using the R-word epithet somehow honors Native peoples, but it is quite the opposite,” Ray Halbritter, a spokesman for the Oneida Indian Nation said in a release. “The R-word is a dictionary defined racial slur, which likely explains why avowed segregationist George Preston Marshall decided to use the term as the team’s name. Continuing an infamous segregationist’s legacy by promoting such a slur is not an honor, as Mr. Snyder and Mr. Goodell claim. It is a malicious insult. That is why leaders in the Senate, in the House of Representatives, in the White House, and at all levels of government across the country are uniting in opposition to this offensive and hurtful name.”
At this point, it’s pretty clear that this issue isn’t going away, and, as DCist contributor Steve Roney noted in his essay on the matter, it’s only a matter of time.
You can read the full letter below:
